In a split vote, the Gilroy City Council this month gave City Administrator, Gabe Gonzalez, an $18,512 raise, retroactive to April 1.
At its Aug. 5 meeting, Mayor Roland Velasco and councilmembers Cat Tucker, Fred Tovar and Peter Leroe-Muñoz voted to approve the raise. Councilmembers Dion Bracco, Marie Blankley and Carol Marques voted against it.
Gonzalez will now make $245,648 annually, up from his current annual pay of $227,136. Velasco said at the meeting that a council subcommittee had determined that Gonzalez was being paid substantially less than other city managers.
The council subcommittee, including Velasco, Tucker and Tovar, evaluated Gonzalez’s job performance, along with the compensation for city managers in similar cities and recommended a 5 percent “market equity increase” to match other cities. Gonzalez will also receive a 3 percent “performance/merit” increase and an additional week of vacation time, from three weeks to four.
Gonzalez was hired in 2016, at a starting salary of $210,000.
“The justification for the market equity increase is based upon a compensation survey of twelve comparable agencies which indicates the cash compensation package for the City Administrator classification is approximately 9.5 percent below the market average,” said the staff report. “This adjustment will bring the compensation within the +-5 percent range, which is the best practice the City of Gilroy strives to achieve when possible.”
Personnel files are not public record, so Gonzalez’s performance was discussed in closed session along with the possibility of a salary increase.
“Based upon the job performance of the City Administrator, including achievement of designated organizational goals and objectives, it is recommended that the City Administrator receive a 3 percent performance/merit based salary increase,” said the staff report. “While the two combined increases will still result in the cash compensation package being below the market average by about 1.5 percent, the changes will bring the compensation to a competitive range for the position of City Administrator.”
